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The Whistle Stop Museum Tour

My journey starts at Enfield town station and the realisation that there is a bus replacement service from Gordon hill, my closest overground line. I now have a time frame for getting there. I am out the door at 10am, to get to the town to catch the 10.23 to Liverpool street. I walk at my usual brisk pace and arrive on time. I can’t say it’s a line I enjoy travelling on but, I have a seat and I arrive at my destination without any hassle. I help a young Mum up the stairs with her pushchair and dodge a beautiful Afgan hound in the process and make my way to the Elizabeth line. I pass the escalator with the incredibly tall ceiling, take a photo and luckily, I have two minutes to spare to catch my train.

The Docklands museum was packed, they have a Chinese new year celebration on, something I knew about but had forgotten. However, much to my disappointment, they did not have the model of ‘Nonsuch House’ anymore. A quick scout round the galleries which were not to my taste and on to Greenwich. I found the DLR and ran up the stairs to the West India Quay platform, only to find there weren’t any trains to Lewisham. I could see Canary Wharf platform as it was 100 yards down the line and that did go there. I turned around and walked fast round the pathways, looked up at the tower and found the correct platform and caught the right train with 1 minute to spare. After arriving at Island Gardens, I made my way via a short walk to the Thames. I crossed the river or rather under the river using the Greenwich foot tunnel, about a mile in length and dips at the centre.

I arrived at the Maritime museum after passing the Cutty Sark in all it’a splendour and I asked for the Robert Falcon Scott exhibits. The rather nice young Lady had no idea what I was talking about and went off to look it up for me. Once I had suggested it was part of the Antarctic exhibition, she knew what I was going on about and was able to direct me. I walked through the many galleries, some more aesthetically pleasing than others and found the gallery. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed to see what was on offer. There were a pair of Scott’s snow shoes, his discarded snow glasses, a couple of photos of Scott you can get on the internet with a quick search, a sleeping bag that was used by a member of the Terra Nova crew and a penguin teddy designed by Ponting the photographer to raise funds to pay off the expedition’s debts. I also found the ‘Helios’ exhibition and I am going to take Lucas there so there’s that. I still have a good amount of time left in the day and, there are few other places left to visit on this adventure.

For the first time in years, I have wasted half an hour on a broken down train, well 15 or so minutes and 15 minutes on a detour to get to Tower hill.

Tower hill did not disappoint, it rarely does. I came out of the station and was rewarded with a glorious view of the Tower. I crossed over the road and headed to All Hallows, the oldest church in the city built in 675 AD. It was everything I was expecting, it has an amazing crypt museum, the reason I went there. It details and displays exhibits and models of how Londinium would have looked. After I took some photos, I made my way to London bridge, the site of the old original bridge you can no longer see. It’s about 30 metres from the current bridge on the east side. There is a large church called ‘Magnus the Martyr’ or the Eucharist which would marked the entrance to the old bridge. Inside the church which still stands by the way, you are greeted by a haze of incense and more importantly, a amazing model of the old London bridge. With all the buildings spanning across. I could not see the ‘Nonsuch’ house on there though. I believe the depiction must been from an earlier time.

I made my way on the modern London bridge and got a cool photo taken from the centre of the road. I was caught in between two stations, I opted for Bank and waited for a northern line train to Kings cross. I changed onto the Piccadilly line and got off at Russell square. I climbed 182 steps to get out of the station instead of using the lift. I arrived at the same as the people running past me to catch it. However, by the end of the climb, I was done. The British museum was just round the corner and I took my time to reach it, stopping off to buy some snacks. As I reached the museum, I chose to enter though the side entrance and I had to go pass security, that I thought was a bit weird. Then I saw the items they were looking for and it made sense. Spray paint, knives, hammers.

#notgivinganythingback #notsorry #imreallynot

I was pleased to see despite the time it took to find them, my favourite exhibits, the Sutton Hoo helmet, the Rosetta stone and the Easter Island head. I also took time to see some Grandfather clocks (is that you yawning) and some Islamic art. After that I was finished and I decided to head into the west end, where the roads were closed for Chinese year. I went to a couple of shops but didn’t buy anything. This has been one of my favourite solo adventures and a great way to start off the year. I made it to Liverpool street with 2 minutes to spare, now I am looking forward to a well earned rest.

#Footnote: This is the first adventure I have been able to write in real time. All of the writings were taken down in my notebook on train journeys between destinations.

Open post

All is so so quiet…

I have at least attempted to create a blog and vlog post,s plus two new podcasts for this year. I just didn’t try very hard, I did manage to create a new youtube video for the ‘Pi’ concept I have created ‘The Pi_Verse’. I spent some money buying a new HQ camera module and put together a working camera for stills and video, plus I demonstrated it working as a vlog cam. A video that unsurprisingly is better on vimeo.com because youtube sucks. I am however addicted. So here I am without a podcast to share or photos as such, despite spending the past 3 weeks making things. How you ask? With my 3d printer that I have managed to wear out the mat and just bought a new one, so mu pointless prints have to be put on hold. I will list the prints I have made and whether or not I am still using them.

Design Success In_use
RPI 3b case Yes Yes
Cat x 3 Yes Yes
Bluetooth amp case x 2.5 No No
HQ camera case Yes No
Heart shape Yes Yes
Ghost character Yes Yes
Camera module Yes No

My 1 of 3 ghosts

I want to print a new HQ camera case for the cinepi project but I am waiting for my new mat to arrive. I attempted to print something today even though it has a small hole in the centre and it took ages and s few tools to remove the plastic after a failed print.

To alleviate my boredom and frustration of 3d printing, I designed my new logo or at the very least started the first draft which you can see on my from page. For positive reinforcement, I decided to go with a name and design that I love the most. Knowing full well people will pronounce Samhain as Sam Hain instead of salwin, in part my fault after creating a Halloween character of said name. I love the design and proper pronunciation of the name

There are other elements I want to add to the design so I am happy it’s a work in progress, plus my new trading name of ‘Spookarium Events’ but no logo as yet.

Give me back my socks

A pointless recording to start off 2025.

Open post

The last & the first 24 -25

The Brief

I had one more hike left to do in the series and, one more day in which to do it. That was new years eve, it seemed like a great idea, I don’t party anymore and I love hiking. Benfleet to Shoeburyness, I have done it a few times now, maybe I am too comfortable with it for it to be a real challenge. I checked the Southend website and they were putting on a fireworks display, I knew then I could time it to come back to the seafront and see the new year in. I left for Leigh on Sea around 4:45, got there an hour later and discovered I’d left my walking boots at home. I changed the route accordingly as the original Hadleigh route takes you across the sea wall which is potentially muddy. It added a further 3 minutes to the journey, it wasn’t very scenic. I jumped on the train at Leigh to make my way to the start point of Benfleet and got there 5 minutes later, knowing that I would pass Leigh 1 hour and 40 minutes later. As I did, I passed my car and got a sinking feeling that leaving my car in a open station car park until the early hours of the morning would add to my anxiety.

I made may way towards Shoeburyness and by the time I could see Chalkwell station (the next stop after Leigh), I thought, I could jump on the next train in 4 minutes, travel 2 minutes back to Leigh, pick up the car and drive back to Chalkwell and park it on the seafront in front of a residential area and feel more comfortable. 20 minutes and £1.90 later I was back on track and heading to Shoeburyness. Apart from the savage wind and the darkness, Southend was quite empty and there were even less people as I passed through. By the time I reached Shoeburyness, there weren’t any people other than 2 people getting out of a car in the distance. I made my way up to MoD fence on the beach, put my feet in the north sea and then made my way back. When I reached Southend or Highcliff, it was packed, which made me feel better only because I knew then the fireworks weren’t cancelled. When midnight came around the display itself was very good, just a shame it was so windy the fireworks couldn’t get up in the sky very high. I also got to speak to Lucas. Once it was all done, I still had a few miles to walk back to my car in Chalkwell. Totally worth it though.

It was a great way to see in and start the new year.

The only photos my cold fingers could take

The route and back on myself



The Podcast

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